Spray gun for spraying fabrics



Feb. 8, 1938. s BRAMSEN ET AL 2,107,686

SPRAY GUN FOR SPRAYING FABRICS Filed Sept.l 27, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet lCfvenr/rdmfel] and Friki Z//f,7

Fb 8, 1938. s. BRAMSEN ET AL SPRAY GUN FOR SPRAYING FABRICS 2Sheets-Sheet 2 24 lnve/z-af-f Cfu/end Brdmffn MJ FH@ A4/"7 @ZM FiledSept. 27, 1935 .Patented Feb. 8, 1938 yPATENT GFFICE 2,107,686 SPRAY GUNFOR. SPRAYING FABRICS Svend Bramsen and auignors to Bink:

Fritz Wahlin, Chicago, Ill., Manufacturing Company,

cago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Application September 27, 1935,Serial No. 42,412 17 Claims. (Cl. 299-88) Our invention relates to aspray gun for spraying liquids on horizontal surfaces, particularlyadapted for use in moistening cloth or wash goods before ironing thesame', for applying starch to such goods, and for use by dry-cleaners inapplying cleaning liquids.

In the heretofore customary spray gun the handle usually has its axis ata rearwardly open angle'of approximately 75 degrees to the axis of thespray head, so that the spray will be discharged along a horizontal axiswhen the handle is comfortably gripped by a hand of the horizontallydisposed fore-arm of the user, thereby making the gun convenient forspraying upright surfaces. Moreover, the needle valve which con` trolsthe discharge of material usually extends horizontally so that it can bemoved to its open position by an arm of a trigger which depends from thegun body and which trigger also is disposed for rearwardly moving an airvalve to open the latter.

To spray downwardly with the Same appliance, the gun must be rockedninety degrees, so that the handle slopes rearwardly upward, therebyobliging the user to raise his elbow and to twist his Wrist to an.extent which soon proves tiresome." Such a disposition of the gun alsobrings the usual suspending hook or eye far from a vertical line throughthe center of gravity of the gun, so that the user cannot be relieved bya suspension cord from supporting most of the weight of the gun.Moreover, the weight of a modern commercial gun, as constructed of thedurable materials needed for handling materials which often have grittyconstituentsnamely a pound and a half, or even more-makes it prohibitivefor use by the average female employee in a textile, clothing, laundryor dry-cleaning establishment.

So also, the high cost of such spray guns has greatly deterred theadoption of spray guns by the just mentioned industries, as also thetiring effect required by the customary spray gun for opening its valvesby the pressure of only two lingers on the trigger.

Our present invention aims to overcome all of the just recitedobjections by providing a spray gun which will be unusually light,easily manufactured and inexpensive; which will require only a quitelight digital pressure for maintaining the spraying after this isstarted; which can have its handle conveniently grasped by a comfortableextended fore-arm, while directing the spray' forwardly downward or evensquarely downward; and which can readily have substantially all of aslot s opening its weight supported by a cord when thus disposed.

Illustrative of the manner in which we accomplish the above recitedobjects,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a spray gun em- 5 bodying my invention./ff' Fig. 2 is an enlarged centralpvertical and longitudinal sectionthrough the same gun. taken v when the air nozzle has been rotated 90degrees.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary section allied to Fig. 2, 10 taken when the griplink has been retracted to open the valves.

Fig. 4 is a view looking downwardly and rearwardly at the same gun fromthe line 4-4 of Fig. 1, drawn on a scale intermediate that of 15 Figs. 1and 2 and with the mechanism cover removed.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the snap-on mechanism cover.

Fig. 6 is a section, of Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a greatly enlarged section taken along the line l-'l of Fig.1, showing the detachable unit for controlling the spray-flattening air.

Fig. 8 is a central, vertical and longitudinal 25 section through theupper portion of the body of the spray gun, drawn on a scaleintermediate that of Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 9 is a horizontal line 9 9 of Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is a section Fig. 2.

Fig. l1 is a view of the forward end of the body, looking from the lineII-li of Fig. 8.

Fig. 12 is a section through the forward end 35 portion of the body,taken along the line EZ-IZ of Fig. 11.

Fig. 13 is an elevation unit when detached from smaller scale than Fig.7. 4

Fig. 14 is a section taken along the line M-Ifi of Fig. 7 through thesame control unit and the adjacent part of the head of the gun body.

Fig. 15 is a perspective view of the rocking lever. In the illustratedembodiment, our spray gun has a single-piece body comprising a generallyhorizontal stock S having its forward end formed as a forwardly andupwardly opening fork (as shown in Fig. 8) presenting an upper forkshank 50 U and a lower form shank H which is thickened to form a head.This stock has a recess R extending rearwardly i'nto it from the saidfork, downwards from the bottom of and has a suspending eye E in takenalong the line 6 6 20 section taken along the 30 along the line Ill- I0of of the side-air control the gun, drawn on a.

the said recess,

The fork in) the stock has its upper and lower Shanks provided (as inFig. 8) with alined bores b and b1 having their common axis 4 (Fig. 8)at a rearwardly vand upwardly opening angle of about 45 degrees to thesaid plane, and the lower shank H h its lower face h at right angles tothe said axi l. Screwed upwardly into the lower end of the b re b' inthe said lower shank of the body fork is t tubular stemof a materialnozzle 5, upon which nozzle an air nozzle 6 is clamped by a retainingringjl threaded on the lower end of the head-formingiower fork shank H.

Liquid material is supplied to` the bore of this material nozzle from anlnl'efnipple N at the lower end of the handle I (to which the usual hoseconnection is made) through a liquid bore L (Fig. 2) in the handleopening into a longitudinal bore L1 in the turn leads to a bore b in thelower and headforming shank of the said body fork.

Extending into the bore of the material nozzle 5 and controlling thedischarge of material from that nozzle is a needle valve 8 extendingslidably through a. valveguide 9 threaded into the upper end of the boreb in' the lower fork shank. The upper portion of this valve guidetogether with a perforated cap I conjointly clamp a packing l l around apart of the needle valve.

The needle valve 8 has its upper end portion threaded through a sleevel2 (Fig. 2) which slides in the bore of a cap i3 threaded into the boreb1 of the upper fork shank, and the needle valve is locked to the saidsleeve by a cap-like locknut i6 threaded on this valve above the saidsleeve. This needle valve and sleeve assembly is continually presseddownwards toward its Amaterial-discharge closing position by between thesaid sleeve and the head of the cap i3.

VTo supply air for the air nozzle we provide the handle l with an airbore l opening into a rear chamber l1 in the stock of the gun from whichan air continuation bore A leads forwardly (Figs. 9 and l2), to an airchamber I8 shown in Figs. 2,7 and 8. Leading forwardly from this airchamber are two ports I9 (Figs. 11 and 12) which open into a rearwardlyopen groove 20 in the material nozzle 5, from which groove the airthereafter flows through nozzle ports 2l (Fig. 2) to issue around and inmerging relation to the material projected by the material nozzle 5.

To control the supply of air, we provide an air valve having its head 22(Fig. 2) disposed in the air inlet bore l5 and continually urged towardits closure positionby a spring 23 which is interposed between the saidvalve and a thrust-receiving sleeve 24 threaded into the said bore. Thisvalve head 22 is fastened to a stem 22a which extends slidably throughva valve guide 25 and a stuffing box 26 in the rearward portion of thebottom of the recess R as shown vin Fig. 2, and which stem presents itsupper end portion within the said recess.

To open both this air valve and the needle valve 8 against theresistance of the springs re stock, which latter bore in a spring diinterposed y spectively A@associated with them, we provide a rockinglever' which is disposed in the said recess and journaled on ahorizontal shaft 21 extending transversely through the stock of the gun.which lever is shown separately in Fig. 15. This lever includes arearward arm 28a overhanging the upper end of the air valve stem 22a,and a forward arm formed as a vertically slitted fork for straddling theneedle valve 8, thereby presenting twov arm tips 28h adapted forsimultaneously engaging the lower end of the slidable sleeve l2 throughwhich the needle valve is threaded. The said lever also desirably hasits forward arm provided with a depending lug 28o disposed for engagingthe bottom R1 of the recess in the stock (Fig. at opposite sides of theupper end of the slot s, so as to halt the valve closing movement of thelever in a position in which the fork 28h of the lever is freely spaced(as in Fig. 2) from the packing-clamping cap I0, thereby permitting aconsiderable adjustment of the effective length of the needle valve 8.In addition, the rear lever arm 28 may have a depending lug 281 disposedfor engaging the adjacent part of the recess bottom, as in Fig.. `3, tolimit the valveopening movement of the lver.

Thus arranged, a clockwise. movement of the rocking lever (in Fig. 2)about the shaft 21 will open both the needle valve and the air valve. Tomove the lever for this valve-opening purpose against the considerableresistance of the two springs and to reduce the digital eiort requiredfor holding the valves open, we interpose two links in toggle-jointdisposition between` the lower portion of the handle and the forward arm28h of the rocking lever, and dispose the two links so as to divergerearwardly at a quite large obtuse angle toward the handle I. Inaddition, we make the lower link of ample length and dispose itsuiciently close to the handle so that this lower link can be easilygripped by all four other ngers of a hand which is holding the handle lbetween the palm and the thumb of that hand.

Thus, the drawings show thelppper link 38 as pivoted at its upper end to'the forward arm 28h of the rocking lever on a horizontal pin 3lextending transversely of the gun. This upper link extends downwardthrough the upright slot s (Fig. 8) in the bottom of the recess R in thestock of the gun and has the upper endV of the relatively much longergrip link 32 pivoted to it on a horizontal pin 33. This grip link hasits lower vend pivoted to a forwardly projecting lug 34 on the lower endof the handle on an also horizontal pin 35, all three of the said pinsbeing coparallel with the shaft 21 on which the lever rocks.

These two links are sumciently greater in their joint eiective lengththan the spacing between the leyer pin 3i and the handle pin 35 so thatthe two links diverge from each other at a quite large rearwardly openobtuse angle even when the lower link is not retracted-as for example atan angle 46 of 150 degrees as shown in Fig. 2. When the user digitallyretracts the (lower) grip link 32, the two links swing towardan axiallyalined disposition, as shown. in Fig. 3, thereby increasing the spacingbetween the lowest pin 35 and the lever pin 3l so that the upward thruston the forward lever arm 28h rocks the lever from its inoperativeposition of Fig. 1 to its valveopening position of Fig. 3, in whichlatter position engagement of the lever lug28c with-the recess bottomhas halted the movement of the lever when the angle between the axes ofthe said two links is 150 degrees.

To close the frontal opening of the recess R we desirably provide aU-sectioned cover C (Fig. of resilient metal which has its mouth portionsnapped upon opposite side portions ha of the gun body adjacent to thesaid frontal recess opening, as shown in Fig. 6.

To adapt ourspray gun for projecting a flattened spray, we desirably usean air nozzle 5 hav-A ing both longitudinal passages 2| through whichair is supplied by passages I9 from the chamber I8 in the gun head H towhich the main air passage L leads, and also longitudinal passages 48leading from the bottom recess 38 (Fig. 7) in the said chamber to theusualside air passages in the two horns 61 of the air nozzle.

To control the admission of air to the said re- Vcess 38 we desirablyemploy the detachable con- -ftrol unit of Fig. 13, shown on a largerscale in section in Fig. 7. This control unit comprises a body v5IIhaving its shank 52 threaded into a lateral bore in the gun head H,into the inner end of' which body a sleeve 55 is threaded.

This 'sleeve has a bore of polygonal section slidably fitting ahexagonal part 56 of the stem of the screw 51 which has its tip adaptedto seat in the mouth end of the bottom recess 38 (as shown in Fig. 7)and which presentsy a knurled exterior head 58. The screw 51 is clampedto the sleeve 55 by a nut 39 threaded on the screw inward of the saidsleeve, thereby latching the sleeve 55 to the screw so that rotation ofthe said screw will rotate the sleeve to move the tip of the screwtowardA or away from its seat.

In practice, the body member of our gun desirably is either a diecasting of a light alloy, or a hot pressed molded plastic. In eithercase, the recesses R. and I'I, slot s, stock passages A1 and M1, forkshank bores b and b1, the handle bores L and I5, and the recess I8 forreceiving the side-air control unit can all be formed during the makingof this body member. The guide bore BI (Fig. 8) for the stem of the airvalve can be formed later by a drill inserted upwardly through the airbore I5 of the handle, and the rear recess I I permits access forinserting a plug 62 in the rear end of the material passage portion M1in the stock. This recess has its rear end normally closed by a plug 60.

To prevent unintentional rotation of the screw y 5l, we also dispose acompression spring 54 between the sleeve 55 and an annular packing 53which bears outwardly against an annular portion of the unit body 5I, ametal ring 6I being desirably interposed between this spring and thesaid packing. Thus arranged, the spring also serves to press the packingfirmly against the main cylindrical part 51a of the screw to prevent airleakage.

With our gun thus constructed, we obtain the following importantadvantages over the conventional spray guns:

(1) Enabling the user to direct the spray downwardly without raising theelbow of the arm which holds the hand, and without bending his Ywrist,thereby greatly reducing the tiring eiect on the user.

(2) Enabling the user to use all four lingers of his handle-graspinghand for retracting the grip lever, instead of using only the two forelingers as required with a conventional gun, thereby also reducing themanual strain.

(3) Making it easy for the user to eject momentary puis of spray, as forspot-cleaning, by`

merely using the pressure of one or two lingers oi' his hand.

(4) Greatly reducing the weight of the gunas for example by fullyone-third-so that it can easily be held and manipulated for long periodsoi' time by the average female worker in a textile establishment orlaundry.

` (5)Utilizing the jamming tendency of a toggle arrangement for greatlyreducing the digital retracting eilort required for keeping the gun inoperation after the valves have been opened.

(6) Eliminating all exposed movable parts except -the grip lever and asmall but effectively guarded portion of the thrust link, so as toreduce the chance of damage if the gun is dropped.

(7) Providing easy access to the interior of the gun body (by digitallyremoving the said cover) for lubricating the pivotal connections to thetrigger and for tightening the cap I Il of the sltiliilng box throughwhich the needle valve s es.

(8) Eliminating the y need of any spring or other auxiliary means forretaining the lever and link assembly in its inoperative disposition ofFig. 2 when. the grip link is not digitally retracted; since gravitythen tends to swing the grip link 32 further forward, thus cooperatingwith the weight ofthe thrust link 38 to resist accidental movement ofthe mechanism so long as the gun is held approximately in its operativeposition.

However, while we have heretofore described our invention in connectionwith the particular embodiment here illustrated, many changes might bemade without departing either from the spirit of our invention or fromthe appended claims.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a pneumatic spraying appliance having a slidable needle valvecontrolling the discharge of material from the appliance and a slidableair valve spaced rearwardly vfrom the said needle valve and controllingthe admission of air, and also having separate springs normally closingboth of the said valves, valve opening means including a memberextending between the two valves and disposed for opening both valveswhen the said member is moved in one direction, and digitally actuablemeans for moving the said member in the said direction; the digitallyactu able means including two interpivoted links extending in toggleformation at an obtuse angle to each other and disposed so that the saidangle increases during the actuation of the said digitally actuablemeans.

2. In a spray appliance of the class in which the body of the appliancehas a rearward and depending handle, in which a spray head is mounted onthe forward end of the body, and in which a needle valve and an airvalve respectively control the discharge of material from the spray headand the supply of air to the spray head: a grip link extending in frontof the handle and pivoted at its lower end to the handle, the grip linkbeing adapted to be retracted toward the handle by fingers of a handgrasping the handle; and a mechanism interposed between the grip linkand the two valves whereby retraction of the grip link opens the saidvalves; the mechanism including a lever pivoted to the body member andend of the grip link and pivoted at its upper end Y to an arm of thelever; the two links having their longitudinal axes intersecting at anobtuse angle opening rearwardly toward the said handle, whereby the twolinks cooperate after the manner of a toggle for exerting an upwardthrust through the upper link when the grip link is retracted toward thehandle.

3. A spray appliance as per claim 2, including means for halting themovement of the mechanism 'by retraction of the grip link before thesaid angle unduly approaches an angle of 180 degrees.

4. A spray appliance as per claim 2, in which both valves and both linkshave their axes: in-

the plane in which the lever rocks.

5. A spray gun as per claim 2, including two springs respectivelycontinually urging the two valves to their closure positions; and meansassociated with the mechanism for limiting the movement of the lever, inthe direction in which the leverA moves during the closing of thevalves, to a position freely permitting the said springs to close bothvalves.

6. A spray appliance as per claim 2, in which the body has a chamberhousing the said lever and a slot opening downwardly from the bottom ofthe said chamber, through which slot the thrust link extends.

7. In a spray gun, a body comprising an upper hollow body portion, ahead portion and a handle portion depending respectively from theforward and rear end parts of the said upper body portion with the axesof the said head and handle' portions diverging downwardly; a materialand air emitting spray head attached to the said head portion coaxialwith the latter, the body member having a material passage and an airpassage both leading to the spray head; a material-discharge-controllingvalve coaxial with the spray head and slidably supported by the saidbody portion, an air Valve slidably mounted in the handle andcontrolling the admission of air to the air passage; two springsrespectively urging the two valves to their closure position; a

. unitary valve actuating member supported within the hollow bodyportion and movable in one direction for substantially simultaneouslymoving the said valves to open both valves against the resistance of thesaid springs; and two inter-pivo ted links disposed in tandem one abovethe other and extending at a rearwardly open large obtuse angle to eachother, the outer ends of the two links being respectively pivoted to thesaid member and to a relatively low portion of the said handle; thelower of the links extending in front of the handle'and being disposedfor retraction by ngers of a hand grasping the handle.

8. A spray gun of the class comprising a body member including arearward depending handle, a spray head including a material nozzlehaving its discharge controlled by a slidable needle valve, an airnozzle having its supply of air controlled by an air valve, and springmeans continuously tending to close each valve; the gun beingcharacterized by also including a multi-armed rocking lever pivoted uponthe body member; the lever having two arms respectively disposed forimparting an `opening movement to the said valves when the lever isrocked in one direction, and having an arm disposed for moving upwardduring the rocking of the lever in the said direction; and the gun alsoincluding two links disposed forward of the said handle, namely a thrustlink pivoted at its upper end to said upwardly moving lever arm, a griplink pivoted at its upper end to the lower end of the aforesaid link andat its lower end to the handle, all of the said pivoting being on axesparallel to the axis about which the lever rocks on the body member, thesaid levers diverging toward the handle at a large obtuse angle and thegrip link having a part thereof disposed so that it can be retracted byall four lingers of a hand which 'grasps the handle between the palm andthe thumb of the hand.

9. A spray gun as per claim 8, in which the gun body has two portionsrespectively disposed for engaging two arms of the lever to halt themovement of the lever in opposite directions in posi-` tions ln whichthe grip link extends respectively at an angle of approximately 150degrees and approximately 165 degrees to the thrust link.

10. In a spray gun, a body comprising al stock and a handle dependingfrom the rear end of the stock; the stock having both a forwardlyopening and a rearwardly opening recess and having two longitudinalfluid passages in the part of the stock below theforwardly openingrecess, both of the' recess and normally closing the rst fluid passagein the stock; and a closure member normally closing the mouthof the saidrearwardly open recess.

11. In a spray gun, a body comprising a handle, a stock extendingforwardly from the upper lend of. the handle and having its forward endformed as la fork presenting one fork shank at higher elevation than theother shank, and a neck extending downwardly from the said other shankof the fork?v the body having an air passage extending through the saidother shank and thereafter downwardly through the neck, and also havinga material passage extending through the neck, both of the said passagesopening at the lower end of the neck; a material nozzle and an airnozzle both supported by the lower end of the neck and to which thematerial passage and the air passage respectively lead; -a needle valvecontrolling the outlet of the material passage and extending through theneck and Vboth shanks of the said fork; spring means mounted in theupper shank of the fork and continually urging the said valve to itsclosure position; an air valve controlling the admission of air to the-air passage;` a second spring means resisting the opening of the airvalve;

and actuating means, operable by a hand holding the handle, for openingboth valves.

12. A spray gun as per claim 11, including two means respectivelymounted in the two shanks of the said fork for guiding the needle valve.

13. In a spray gun, a body including a stock presenting a forwardly openfork having its fork shanks vertically spaced and having alined bores inthe said shanks, the body also having an interior chamber behind theopening of the said fork; two alined valve guides respectively mountedin the said bores; a material nozzle supported by one of the said shanksand having its discharge bore alining with -the valve guides; a needlevalve extending slidably through the said guides and controlling thedischarge of material from the said nozzle; and a mechanism for movingthe needle valve to open the discharge of material from the said nozzle,the

mechanism including a rocking lever disposed in the said chamber andarranged for moving the valve; the body also including a handledepending from the rear end of the stock; and two interpivoted linksdisposed one above the other in toggle-like formation and interposedbetween the lever and` the handle, the lower link being disposed infront of the handle and adapted to be digitally moved by fingers of ahand grasping the handle.

14. A spray gun Vas per claim 13,in which the needle valve has adiametric enlargement disposed within the said fork, and in which thesaid lever has a forked arm straddling the needle valve and adapted toengage the said enlargement for opening the needle valve when the leveris rocked in one direction.

15. In a pneumatic spray gun. a body including a stock provided with annteriorchamber. and a handle depending from the rearward end of thestock; a spray-head mounted. on the forward end of the stock andincluding a materialdischarge nozzle disposed for projecting materialdownwardly; an upwardly openable needle valve controlling the saidnozzle and extending into the forward portion ot the said chamber; adownwardly openable air valve having a part thereof extending into arearv portion ofthe said chamber, the said valves having their axes in acommon vertical plane longitudinal of: the handle, stock and materialnozzle; two springs respectively urging the two valves to their lclosurepositions; a valve-opening mechanism lncluding a lever rockinglysupported by the body within the said chamber for movement about ahorizontal axis transverse of the said plane, the lever having a forwardarm and a rearward arm respectively disposed for raising the needlevalve and for depressing the air valve when the lever is rocked so thatthe forward arm moves upwardly; and two relatively superposed andpivotally connected links disposed in toggle formation between theforward arm of the lever and a relatively lower portion of the body, thelower link having a part thereof disposed in front of the handle andadapted to be swung toward the handle by a hand grasping the handle; thetwo links having their axes diverging at a large obtuse angle anddisposed so that the said swinging of the lower link increases the saidangle.

v16. A spray gun as per claim 15, in which the body member has stopportions disposed for limiting the rocking movement of the lever in onedirection to a position permitting each spring to close the valve withwhich the spring is associated, and in the other direction to a positionin which the said angle between the link axes is still materially lessthan 180 degrees.

17. A spray gun as per claim 10, in which the said stock has adownwardly opening slot leading from the said forwardly opening recessand disposed between the two iluid passages. through which slot anactuating member can extend for operating a mechanism housed by the saidforwardly opening recess.

SVEND BRAMBEN. FRITZ WAHLIN.

